Eddy Merckx frame dating ephemera

At least, things of passing interest for some.

The gold name box for Merckx frames wasn't present originally. As far as I've been able to determine, they first appear in the 1987 catalog. Advertising materials first show it in 1989. So I think we can assume that while it appeared in '87, it was inconsistently applied. The center spread of the 1987 catalog shows most of the frames are carrying it, except for the unnamed Grand Prix, and one of the Corsa Extra's, which sports an older name label in red.

The top tube may have a decal with a model name on it. Possibly only on the drive side. Gold label, around 1987. Red label, pre-87, and the earliest probably don't have a name at all on them.

The crown and seat stay caps also might be helpful here. The earlier frames have seat stays capped with a signature cap. The (I think) 1985 catalog shows seat stays capped with the current logo. The sloping fork also has the current logo caps, and the flat capped fork has a block-style Eddy Merckx name on them. Fastback seat stays don't seem to appear in the first catalog, but its hard to say if they were introduced later, or just not seen in the catalog.

I'll work on expanding this and narrowing it down. But I think with this info, its possible to narrow frames down to early, mid and late 80's.
Seat and head tube logos are pretty consistent through the 80's. Bikes with seat tube "points" may lack the upper Italy/France band. Frames with a panel on the seat tube may also lack the traditional upper band, and instead have a 'Made In Belgium' band. The pointed livery seems to have appears in the mid 80's.

The downtube decals are a little tougher. The first frames consistently had the right leaning, block Eddy Merckx, with underlining. Mid 80's sees that logo, along with the introduction of a thin and a thick bubble font. Without a comparison subject, the easiest way to tell them apart is the thin font has an open bottom D.